Configuration schemes for secondary cell, bandwidth part and physical resource block indexing

ABSTRACT

The disclosure describes configuration schemes for secondary cell (SCell), bandwidth part (BWP) and physical resource block (PRB) indexing. An apparatus of user equipment (UE) for BWP activation and deactivation operation is disclosed. The apparatus includes baseband circuitry that includes a radio frequency (RF) interface, and one or more processors. The one or more processors are to receive radio resource control (RRC) data via the RF interface, configure a timer for a BWP according to the RRC data, and trigger the timer for the BWP in response to detection of an event associated with an access node after the BWP has been activated.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims priorities of U.S. provisional application Ser.No. 62/556,973 entitled SECONDARY CELL CONFIGURATION FOR NEW RADIO ANDTHE PHYSICAL RESOURCE BLOCK INDEX OFFSET SIGNALING FOR SECONDARY CELLWITHOUT SYNCHRONIZATION SIGNAL BLOCK, which was filed on Sep. 11, 2017,U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/567,003 entitled ASSOCIATION OFDOWNLINK/UPLINK BANDWIDTH PARTS AND THE BANDWIDTH PART SWITCHING VIADOWNLINK CONTROL INFORMATION WITHOUT RESOURCE ALLOCATION, which wasfiled on Oct. 2, 2017, U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/554,850entitled EFFICIENT BANDWIDTH PART ON-OFF OPERATION, which was filed onSep. 6, 2017, and U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 62/556,971entitled DOWNLINK CONTROL INFORMATION DESIGN FOR BANDWIDTH PARTACTIVATION/DEACTIVATION AND CROSS-BANDWIDTH PART SCHEDULING, which wasfiled on Sep. 11, 2017.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure is generally related to configuration schemes forsecondary cell (SCell), bandwidth part (BWP) and physical resource block(PRB) indexing, and more specifically to configuration schemes for aSCell carrier, BWP activation/deactivation operations, and common PRBindex offset signaling.

BACKGROUND ART

The New Radio (NR) wideband operation capability has direct impact onthe peak data rate and may improve user experience. However, since userequipments (UEs) are not always demanding high data rates, the use ofwide bandwidth may imply higher idling power consumption both from radiofrequency (RF) and baseband signal processing perspectives. In thisregard, a concept of bandwidth part (BWP) for NR is proposed to providea means of operating UEs with smaller bandwidth than the configuredchannel bandwidth.

A BWP includes a group of contiguous physical resource blocks (PRBs).The bandwidth of a BWP cannot exceed the configured channel bandwidthfor the UE, which is chosen in consideration of the UE's RF capability.The bandwidth of the BWP is at least as large as one synchronizationsignal block (SSB) bandwidth since it is crucial to receivesynchronization signals and essential system information in the SSblock. Each BWP is associated with a specific numerology, such assubcarrier spacing (SCS) and cyclic prefix (CP) type. Therefore, the BWPis also a means to reconfigure a UE with a certain numerology. Thenetwork can configure one or multiple BWPs to a UE via radio resourcecontrol (RRC) signaling.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Other features and advantages of the disclosure will become apparent inthe following detailed description of the embodiments with reference tothe accompanying drawings, of which:

FIG. 1 illustrates a flow chart of a method for timer-basedactivation/deactivation of BWP according to some embodiments of thisdisclosure, where the timer is associated with BWP configuration;

FIG. 2 illustrates a flow chart of another method for timer-basedactivation/deactivation of BWP according to some embodiments of thisdisclosure, where the timer is associated with BWP configuration;

FIG. 3 illustrates a flow chart of a method for timer-basedactivation/deactivation of BWP according to some embodiments of thisdisclosure, where the timer is associated with CORESET configuration;

FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart of another method for timer-basedactivation/deactivation of BWP according to some embodiments of thisdisclosure, where the timer is associated with CORESET configuration;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of a wideband NR carrier from a networkperspective according to some embodiments of this disclosure, wherewideband UEs, CA UEs, and narrowband UEs coexist;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of common physical resource block (PRB)index offset signaling for secondary cell (SCell) with or withoutsynchronization signal block (SSB) according to some embodiments of thisdisclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example of multiple configured BWPs in a UE whichoverlap in frequency according to some embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an apparatus accordingto some embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry according tosome embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates an architecture of a system of a network accordingto some embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a control plane protocol stackaccording to some embodiments of this disclosure;

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a user plane protocol stack accordingto some embodiments of this disclosure; and

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readableor computer-readable medium and perform any one or more of themethodologies discussed herein.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Before the present technology is disclosed and described, it is to beunderstood that this technology is not limited to the particularstructures, process actions, or materials disclosed herein, but isextended to equivalents thereof as would be recognized by thoseordinarily skilled in the relevant arts. It should also be understoodthat terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularexamples only and is not intended to be limiting.

The following description and the accompanying drawings provide specificembodiments to enable those skilled in the art to embody the concept ofthis disclosure. A number of examples are described with reference to3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) communication systems. Itwill be understood that principles of the embodiments may be applicablein other types of communication systems, such as Wi-Fi or Wi-Maxnetworks, Bluetooth® or other personal-area networks, Zigbee or otherhome-area networks, and the like, without limitation, unlessspecifically stated in this disclosure.

Various embodiments may comprise one or more elements. An element maycomprise any structure arranged to perform certain operations. Eachelement may be implemented as hardware, software, or any combinationthereof, as desired for a given set of design parameters or performanceconstraints. Although an embodiment may be described with a limitednumber of elements in a certain topology by way of example, theembodiment may include more or less elements in alternate topologies asdesired for a given implementation. It is worthy to note that anyreference to “one embodiment” or “an embodiment” means that a particularfeature, structure, or characteristic described in connection with theembodiment is included in at least one embodiment. The appearances ofthe phrases “in one embodiment,” “in some embodiments,” and “in variousembodiments” in various places in the specification are not necessarilyall referring to the same embodiment.

Efficient Bandwidth Part On-Off Operation

According to recent development of 3GPP New Radio (NR), it is agreedthat NR supports activation/deactivation of downlink (DL) and uplink(UL) bandwidth parts (BWPs) by explicit indication at least in downlinkcontrol information (DCI). In addition to the DCI based explicitactivation/deactivation, activation/deactivation of a DL/UL BWP by meansof timer(s) for a UE to switch its active DL/UL BWP to a default DL/ULBWP is introduced in this disclosure, and several methods to supportefficient BWP on-off operation are proposed. Specifically, differentreconfigurable timer approaches are presented.

In some embodiments, for each configured BWP in a UE by radio resourcecontrol (RRC) signaling from a radio access network (RAN) node, a timeris configured to enable the UE to autonomously switch off the BWP whenthe timer expires. Different configured BWPs may have different timers.

There is an initial active DL/UL BWP pair to be valid for the UE untilthe UE is explicitly (re)configured with BWP(s) during or after RRCconnection is established. The initial active DL/UL BWP is confinedwithin the UE minimum bandwidth for the given frequency band. In someembodiments, the default DL/UL BWP is the initial active DL/UL BWPdefined above, and has a smaller bandwidth than other configured BWP inthe UE. The default DL/UL BWP is able to be reconfigured by the network(e.g., the RAN node).

In some embodiments, the default DL/UL BWP is associated with the timerwith largest expiration time which is equal to a discontinuous reception(DRX) time of the UE. Whenever the RAN node reconfigures a BWP to serveas the default DL/UL BWP, an expiration time of a timer for the BWP isupdated to the DRX time. On the other hand, if an expiration time of atimer for a certain BWP is reconfigured to the DRX time, this BWPbecomes the default DL/UL BWP.

FIG. 1 illustrates an embodiment of a method for timer-basedactivation/deactivation of BWP, where the timer is associated with BWPconfiguration. In block 11 of this method, one or a plurality of BWPsare configured by an RRC connection setup message, and an expirationtime of a timer for each BWP or a joint timer for the plurality of BWPsis explicitly configured as a BWP configuration parameter of the BWP(s).Specifically, an apparatus of UE includes baseband circuitry thatincludes a radio frequency (RF) interface, and one or more processorsthat are to receive RRC data via the RF interface, and that are toconfigure the timer for the BWP according to the RRC data. The RRC datais acquired from the RRC connection setup message, e.g., by conversion.

In the embodiment shown in FIG. 1, after one of the BWP(s) (such as theBWP numbered “k” as shown in FIG. 1) has been activated, the timer is tobe triggered by the RAN node, such as the next Generation NodeB (gNB).Accordingly, in block 12, the gNB attempts to start the timer for theBWP for the UE by RRC signaling. Specifically, the gNB transmits atimer-start command to the UE.

In block 13, in response to receipt of the timer-start command via theRF interface, the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry ofthe apparatus of UE generate a confirmation of the timer-start command(e.g., an acknowledgement), send the confirmation to the RF interfacefor transmission back to the gNB, and trigger the timer. On the side ofgNB, in response to receipt of the confirmation, a corresponding timerfor the BWP is also triggered, i.e., started.

When there are some data scheduled for transmission in the BWP beforethe timer expires, the timers at the sides of gNB and UE are bothdisabled, i.e., stopped. The data are, for example, physical downlinkcontrol channel (PDCCH) content or physical downlink shared channel(PDSCH) content.

In block 14, when there are no data scheduled for transmission in theBWP before the timer expires, the BWP is deactivated at both the sidesof gNB and UE. Specifically, the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry of the apparatus of UE are to deactivate the BWP when it isdetermined that there is no data transmission in the BWP before thetimer expires.

After the deactivation of the BWP, no data transmission, including PDCCHcontent and PDSCH content, can be scheduled in the BWP before the BWP isreactivated. In some embodiments, different BWPs can be configured withdifferent expiration times. For example, for power consumptionoptimization, the larger expiration time is configured to a BWP with asmaller bandwidth so that the UE mainly utilizes smaller BWPs for low ormedium data rate communication and larger BWPs are only used when highdata rate communication is really demanded.

FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of the method for timer-basedactivation/deactivation of BWP which is similar to the embodiment of themethod illustrated in FIG. 1. In this embodiment, triggering of a timerfor a BWP is initiated by detection of an event by the UE, rather thanbeing initiated by the gNB as in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1.

In block 21, a timer of a certain BWP (such as the BWP numbered “k” asshown in FIG. 2) is configured by the RRC connection setup message.

In block 22, after the BWP is configured and activated, whenever dataare scheduled for transmission in the BWP, the timer for the BWP istriggered (i.e., started). Specifically, the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry of the apparatus of UE are to trigger the timerfor the BWP in response to detection of an event that there is datatransmission scheduled in the BWP. The data is exemplified as PDSCHcontent.

In block 23, whenever there are some data, including PDCCH or PDSCHcontent, transmitted in the BWP, the timers for the BWP at both thesides of gNB and UE are restarted. Specifically, the one or moreprocessors of the baseband circuitry of the apparatus of UE are torestart the timer at the side of UE when it is determined that there isdata transmission in the BWP before the timer expires.

In block 24, when there is a continuous time period during which no datais transmitted in BWP, so that the timer for the BWP expires, the BWP isdeactivated at both the sides of gNB and UE. Specifically, the one ormore processors of the baseband circuitry of the apparatus of UE are todeactivate the BWP when it is determined that there is no datatransmission in the BWP before the timer expires.

FIG. 3 illustrates an embodiment of a method for timer-basedactivation/deactivation of BWP, where the timer is associated withcontrol resource set (CORESET) configuration.

In this embodiment, the timer is associated with a CORESET of the BWPinstead of the BWP itself, so that if no data of control channel, suchas the PDCCH, is transmitted from the CORESET for a configured timeperiod, the monitoring of the control channel and associated BWP isdeactivated. Accordingly, for each CORESET associated with a BWP, atimer is configured for the CORESET. When the timer of a CORESETexpires, UE is expected to stop monitoring the CORESET so that theCORESET is deactivated. When all CORESETs corresponding to a BWP aredeactivated, the corresponding BWP is deactivated as well.

In block 31, one or a plurality of CORESETs are configured by RRCsignaling, such as an RRC CORESET configuration message. The RRCsignaling includes RRC configuration for one of the CORESETs (such asthe CORESET numbered “n” as shown in FIG. 3). The RRC configurationincludes an expiration time of a timer for the CORRESET and a scheduledBWP (such as the BWP numbered “k” as shown in FIG. 3). Specifically, theone or more processors of the baseband circuitry of the apparatus of UEare to configure the timer for the CORESET included in the BWP.

After the CORESET has been activated, the timer for the CORESET is to betriggered by the gNB. Accordingly, in block 32, the gNB attempts tostart the timer for the CORESET at the side of UE by RRC signaling.Specifically, the gNB transmits a timer-start command to the UE.

In block 33, in response to receipt of the timer-start command from theRF interface, the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry ofthe apparatus of UE generate a confirmation of the timer-start command(e.g., an acknowledgement), send the confirmation to the RF interfacefor transmission back to the gNB, and trigger the timer for the CORESET.On the side of gNB, in response to receipt of the confirmation, acorresponding timer for the CORESET is also triggered, i.e., started.

When there is some PDCCH content scheduled for transmission in theCORESET before the timer expires, the timers at the sides of gNB and UEfor the CORESET are both disabled, i.e., stopped.

In block 34, when no PDCCH content is transmitted in the CORESET beforethe timer expires, the CORESET is deactivated at both the sides of gNBand UE. Specifically, the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry of the apparatus of UE are to deactivate the CORESET when itis determined that there is no data transmission in the CORESET beforethe timer expires.

After the deactivation of the CORESET, no PDCCH data can be scheduledfor transmission in CORESET before the CORESET is reactivated. In someembodiments, the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry of theapparatus of UE are to deactivate the BWP when it is determined that allCORESETs included in the BWP are deactivated. In some embodiments, ifthe frequency location of a CORESET is confined within the BWP, the DRXoperation of the CORESET follows the overall DRX operation of the BWP.In addition to the timer based method, the CORESET is able to beactivated/deactivated by RRC signaling or DCI based dynamic signaling.

FIG. 4 illustrates an embodiment of the method for timer-basedactivation/deactivation of BWP which is similar to the embodiment of themethod illustrated in FIG. 3. In this embodiment, triggering of a timerfor a CORESET is initiated by detection of an event by the UE, ratherthan being initiated by the gNB as in the embodiment illustrated in FIG.3.

In block 41, a timer for a certain CORESET (such as the CORESET numbered“n” as shown in FIG. 4) is configured by the RRC CORESET configurationmessage.

In block 42, after the CORESET is configured and activated, wheneverdata, e.g., PDCCH content, is transmitted in the CORESET, the timer forthe CORESET is triggered (i.e., started). Specifically, the one or moreprocessors of the baseband circuitry of the apparatus of UE are totrigger the timer for the CORESET in response to detection of an eventthat there is data transmission in the CORESET. The data transmitted isexemplified as PDCCH content.

In block 43, whenever there is some PDCCH content transmitted in theCORESET, the timers for the CORESET at both the sides of gNB and UE arerestarted. Specifically, the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry of the apparatus of UE are to restart the timer when it isdetermined that there is data transmission in the CORESET before thetimer expires.

In block 44, when there is a continuous time period during which noPDCCH content is transmitted in the CORESET, so that the timer for theCORESET expires, the CORESET is deactivated at both sides of gNB and UE.Specifically, the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry ofthe apparatus of UE are to deactivate the CORESET when it is determinedthat there is no data transmission in the CORESET before the timerexpires. In some embodiments, the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry of the apparatus of UE are to deactivate the BWP when it isdetermined that all CORESETs included in the BWP are deactivated.

Secondary Cell (SCell) Center Frequency and Bandwidth (BW) Configuration

NR supports flexible network operation tailored to each UE havingdifferent RF capability, i.e., simultaneously operating as widebandcarrier for some UEs and, at the same time, as intra-band carrieraggregation (CA) for some other UEs. As a result, the notion of carrierin NR is rather UE-specific than cell-specific in Long-Term Evolution(LTE) and therefore, the carrier definition from network perspective(i.e., from the perspective of an access node) is not necessarily thesame as the carrier definition from UE perspective (i.e., from aperspective of a UE).

In LTE, for SCell configuration, a UE will be RRC signaled oninformation regarding the carrier, i.e., the absolute radio-frequencychannel number (ARFCN) and the bandwidth. In NR, due to the UE-specificcarrier concept, the LTE method of SCell configuration is not directlyapplicable.

Therefore, an approach to notifying a UE of the carrier is proposed inthis disclosure. In an embodiment, an apparatus of a radio accessnetwork (RAN) node includes baseband circuitry that includes one or moreprocessors and an RF interface. The one or more processors of thebaseband circuitry of the apparatus of a RAN node are to generate, forSCell configuration, data that contain information regarding a carriersignal to be specifically allocated to a UE for informing the UE about acenter frequency and a bandwidth of the carrier signal. The RF interfaceis to receive the data from the one or more processors.

In some embodiments, the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry of the apparatus of a RAN node are to generate the data tocontain the information including: a center frequency from a perspectiveof the RAN node; an offset from the center frequency from theperspective of the RAN node to a center frequency from a perspective ofthe UE; and a bandwidth of the carrier signal from the perspective ofthe UE.

In some embodiments, the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry of the apparatus of a RAN node are to generate the data tocontain the information including: a center frequency from a perspectiveof the RAN node; and two offsets from the center frequency to respectiveends of the carrier signal from a perspective of the UE.

In some embodiments, the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry of the RAN node are to generate the data to contain theinformation including: a center frequency from a perspective of the UE;and a bandwidth of the carrier signal from the perspective of the UE.

Common Physical Resource Block (PRB) Index Offset Signaling for SCellwithout Synchronization Signal Block (SSB)

Referring to FIG. 5, in a given wideband NR carrier from a networkperspective, wideband UEs, CA UEs, and narrowband UEs, depending ontheir RF implementation, can coexist. Therefore, different from LTE,which only supports cell-specific indexing common to all UEs, specialhandling is necessary for NR.

Accordingly, it is desirable for NR to support both common PRB indexingand UE-specific PRB indexing. The UE-specific PRB indexing is indexedfor different BWPs with respect to the configured subcarrier spacing(SCS) for the configured frequency range of an active BWP, i.e., the BWPthat is activated. The UE-specific PRB indexing may be used forscheduling a UE-specific PDSCH. On the other hand, the common PRBindexing is common to all the UEs sharing a wideband component carrier(CC) from a network perspective regardless of whether the UEs arewideband, CA, or narrowband UEs. The expected usage of the common PRBindexing is for scheduling a group common PDSCH, reference signal (RS)sequence generation and reception, and BWP configuration, etc.

Referring to the left-hand-side of FIG. 6, for the SCell with SSB, areference PRB for common PRB indexing is PRB 0, which is common to allthe UEs sharing a wideband CC from the network perspective. An offsetfrom PRB 0 to the lowest PRB of the SSB accessed by the UE is configuredby high layer signaling.

On the other hand, referring to the right-hand-side of FIG. 6, since noSSB is present in this scenario, the offset signaling with respect tothe SSB, which originally serves as a reference point, is not feasible.Therefore, an approach of signaling the common PRB index offset for aSCell without SSB is proposed in this disclosure. In some embodiments,an apparatus of UE for common PRB indexing includes baseband circuitrythat includes an RF interface, and one or more processors. The one ormore processors are to, for a SCell carrier without an SSB, receive,from the RF interface, data that indicate an offset between a referencepoint and a lowest subcarrier of a reference PRB. The reference PRB is alowest PRB of a carrier from the perspective of an access node (i.e.,the NR carrier from the network perspective) that allocates the SCellcarrier to the apparatus. The one or more processors are to configuredata transmission with the access node according to the offset indicatedby the data. Several options for the reference points are proposedbelow.

In some embodiments, the reference point is a lowest PRB of the SCellcarrier from the perspective of the apparatus of UE for common PRBindexing (i.e., the SCell carrier from UE perspective). In someembodiments, the reference point is a PRB containing the centerfrequency of the carrier from the perspective of the access node, i.e.,the ARFCN. In some embodiments, the reference point is a PRB containingthe center frequency of the SCell carrier from the perspective of theapparatus. In some embodiments, the reference point is a PRB containingthe DC (direct current) subcarrier.

In some embodiments, the reference point is a position of a virtual SSBwhich is not physically present in the SCell carrier from theperspective of the apparatus of UE for common PRB indexing. The positionof the virtual SSB is a hypothetical position anywhere within thebandwidth of the SCell carrier from the perspective of the apparatus. Insome embodiments, the virtual SSB is a lowest PRB within the SCellcarrier from the perspective of the apparatus. The common PRB offsetsignaling follows the same procedure defined for the scenario of SCellwith SSB.

Association of DL BWP and UL BWP

As illustrated in FIG. 7, an access node is able to configure multipleBWPs to a UE via RRC signaling, and the multiple BWPs may overlap infrequency. The granularity of bandwidth configuration is one PRB.

In the case of time-division duplexing (TDD), a UE is not expected toretune the center frequency and the bandwidth of a channel between DLand UL data transmission. It is noted that the RF is shared between DLand UL in TDD and, thus, it is impractical for a UE to retune the RFbandwidth for every alternating DL-to-UL and UL-to-DL switching. Thus,practically, there is an appropriate association between a DL BWP and aUL BWP. Moreover, making an association between the DL BWP and the ULBWP will allow one activation/deactivation command to switch both the DLBWP and the UL BWP at once. Otherwise, separate BWP switching commandswill be necessary.

In the case of frequency-division duplexing (FDD), since the RF chainfor DL and the RF chain for UL are separate, there is no strong demandto make an association between a DL BWP and a UL BWP. However, with theassociation, it is still beneficial since one activation/deactivationcommand can switch both DL and UL BWPs. Also, to preserve the maximumcommonality between TDD and FDD design, e.g., DCI, it is proposed tomake an association between a DL BWP and a UL BWP.

In some embodiments, an apparatus of user equipment (UE) includesbaseband circuitry that includes a radio frequency (RF) interface andone or more processors. The one or more processors are to, when there isan association between a DL BWP and a UP BWP, receive, from the RFinterface, data containing DCI that indicates a BWP configurationidentifier (ID). The one or more processors then switch both the DL BWPand the UL BWP to a BWP corresponding to the BWP configuration ID. Insome embodiments, a format of the DCI is one of DL grant and UL grant.

On the other hand, in some embodiments, the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry of the apparatus of UE are to receive from the RFinterface, when there is no association between the DL BWP and the ULBWP, data containing the DCI for DL BWP switching that indicates a DLBWP configuration ID. The one or more processors then switch the DL BWPto another DL BWP corresponding to the DL BWP configuration ID indicatedby the DCI. In some embodiments, the DCI for DL BWP switching is a DLgrant scheduling DCI.

Further, in some embodiments, the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry of the apparatus of UE are to receive from the RF interface,when there is no association between the DL BWP and the UL BWP, datacontaining the DCI for UL BWP switching that indicates a UL BWPconfiguration ID. The one or more processors then switch the UL BWP toanother UL BWP corresponding to the UP BWP configuration ID indicated bythe DCI. In some embodiments, the DCI for UL BWP switching is a UL grantscheduling DCI.

In some embodiments, there is an association between a DL BWP and a ULBWP for a TDD carrier, and there is no association between a DL BWP anda UL BWP for an FDD carrier.

BWP Activation/Deactivation via DCI without Resource Allocation

When it is desired for an access node to expand a UE's bandwidth, itwill be the case that the access node attempts to schedule data to betransmitted to the UE. Therefore, a BWP switching command will come withscheduling through resource allocation. On the other hand, when it isdesired for the access node to shrink a UE's bandwidth, it will be thecase that there is no data to be scheduled to be directed to the UE. Insuch cases, the UE can be switched to a default BWP using theaforementioned timer based BWP activation/deactivation mechanism.However, having capability of BWP switching only and without schedulingwill allow more controllability to the network.

As a result, an apparatus of UE is proposed to support BWP switchingwithout scheduling. In some embodiments, the apparatus includes basebandcircuitry that includes an RF interface and one or more processors. Theone or more processors are to receive, from the RF interface, datacontaining a bit indicator that indicates BWP switching only. The one ormore processors then switch a current BWP to another BWP. Specifically,the data received by the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry is DCI, and the bit indicator is an expression of a bit fieldin the DCI serving the purpose of BWP switching only. In someembodiments, the bit field in the DCI includes one of resource block(RB) assignment bits, modulation and coding scheme (MCS) bits, a hybridautomatic repeat request (HARQ) process number, etc.

BWP ID

A UE is RRC configured on the set of BWPs that the UE can be potentiallyactivated with. In some embodiments, an apparatus of UE includesbaseband circuitry that includes an RF interface and one or moreprocessors. The one or more processors are to receive, from the RFinterface, RRC configuration data that indicate a set of BWPs. The oneor more processors then configure, according to the RRC configurationdata, the set of BWPs, in which a BWP is to be activated for datatransmission with an access node.

In some embodiments, a total number of BWPs in the set of BWPs indicatedby the RRC configuration data is fixed to an integer number K. Thenumber K can be fixed in the specification. The BWPs have respective BWPidentifiers (IDs) ranging from 1 to K, and a total of log2 K bits areused to express the BWP IDs.

Alternatively, the access node can configure, through RRC signaling, therange of the BWP IDs to K′, so the number of configured BWPs in a UEthrough the RRC signaling does not exceed K′. Accordingly, in someembodiments, the RRC configuration data further indicate a range ofconfigurable BWP IDs, and the range is an integer number K′. The numberof BWPs in the set of BWPs configured by the one or more processor doesnot exceed the integer number K′, and a total of log 2 K′ bits are usedto express the BWP IDs.

DCI Design for BWP Activation and Deactivation

Since it is agreed that NR supports activation/deactivation of DL and ULBWPs by explicit indication at least in downlink control information(DCI), different types of DCI are proposed in this disclosure forcontrolling activation and deactivation of BWPs. In some embodiments, anapparatus of UE includes a baseband circuitry that includes an RFinterface and one or more processors. The one or more processors are toreceive, from the RF interface, DCI including a BWP activation command(or a BWP deactivation command) and a BWP ID. The one or more processorsthen activate (or deactivate) a BWP corresponding to the BWP ID.

In some embodiments, the DCI is a scheduling DCI which describesresource allocation (RA), the description of the RA including the BWPID. The scheduling DCI includes a plurality of BWP IDs for activation ofa plurality of BWPs. In this case, the BWP IDs of the scheduling DCI areindicated by a bitmap. In some embodiments, the scheduling DCI includesboth a UL BWP ID and a DL BWP ID. In some embodiments, the schedulingDCI includes a DL BWP ID only or a UL BWP ID only.

Alternatively, a separate DCI other than the scheduling DCI is used forthe dedicated purpose of BWP activation/deactivation. The separate DCIhas merit in the sense that the DCI can be designed to be more robustbecause it will contain fewer information bits. Considering that the BWPswitching command is expected to have high reliability, this merit isimportant. Accordingly, in some embodiments, the DCI is a separate BWPactivation DCI (or a separate BWP deactivation DCI) which is used for adedicated purpose of BWP activation (or BWP deactivation) and whichincludes the BWP ID corresponding to the BWP expected to be activated(or deactivated). If the separate BWP activation DCI includes only oneBWP ID, the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry are toreceive, from the RF interface, a scheduling DCI which does not indicatethe BWP ID corresponding to the BWP to be scheduled for datatransmission.

In some embodiments, the separate BWP activation DCI (or separate BWPdeactivation DCI) includes a plurality of BWP IDs for activation (ordeactivation) of a plurality of BWPs. In this case, the BWP IDs of theseparate BWP activation DCI (or separate BWP deactivation DCI) areindicated by a bitmap. The one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry are to receive, from the RF interface, a scheduling DCI whichindicates one of the BWP IDs corresponding to one of the BWPs to bescheduled for data transmission.

In some embodiments, the separate BWP activation DCI includes a timervalue for timer-based BWP switching. The timer value is exemplified byan expiration time of a timer, and may be different than what isconfigured through RRC signaling. In some embodiments, the separate BWPactivation DCI includes time provisioned for RF switching. In someembodiments, the separate BWP activation DCI (or separate BWPdeactivation DCI) is used for both UL BWP activation and DL BWPactivation (or both UL BWP deactivation and DL BWP deactivation). Insome embodiments, the separate BWP activation DCI (or separate BWPdeactivation DCI) is used for both UL BWP activation and DL BWPactivation (or both UL BWP deactivation and DL BWP deactivation). Insome embodiments, the separate BWP activation DCI (or separate BWPdeactivation DCI) is used for UL BWP activation only (or UL BWPdeactivation only), and another separate BWP activation DCI (or anotherseparate BWP deactivation DCI) is used for DL BWP activation only (or DLBWP deactivation only).

In some embodiments, activation (or deactivation) of the BWP is within aconfigured carrier and does not span over different carriers. In someembodiments, the BWP activation for DL and UL can be done in a pairedmanner, so only one configuration ID indication is included in the DCI.In another embodiment, the BWP activation for DL is independent from theBWP activation for UL.

DCI Design for Cross-BWP Scheduling

When there is a BWP switching, a DCI in a current BWP is supposed toexpress resource allocation (RA) in the next BWP that the UE is expectedto switch from the current BWP to. Based on an NR design, the RA will bebased on the UE-specific PRB indexing, which is dedicated to differentBWPs. This means that the range of the PRB indices will change as theBWP changes. Note that the DCI to be transmitted in the current BWP willbe based on the PRB indexing for the current BWP, but that DCI issupposed to express the RA in the new BWP, which arouses conflict.

Therefore, a DCI design for cross-BWP scheduling is proposed in thisdisclosure to address the aforementioned issue. In some embodiments, anapparatus of UE for cross-BWP scheduling includes baseband circuitrythat includes an RF interface and one or more processors. The one ormore processors are to receive, from the RF interface, DCI thatindicates RA in a next BWP, wherein the apparatus is expected to switchfrom a current BWP to the next BWP. A size of a bit field for describingthe RA in the DCI is fixed and does not change for different BWPs,implying that a total bit size for the DCI is fixed and does not changefor different BWPs. Furthermore, used bits among the bit field fordescribing the RA are dependent on the current BWP and the next BWP.

In one example of these embodiments, there are N bits allocated for RAtype 0 allocation which is the largest number demanded considering thelargest supported bandwidth of the BWP by specification and consideringthe resource block group (RBG) size. If a small BWP is used, such as aBWP only having n RBGs in it, then only the first n bits in atotal-N-bit field for RA are valid information to be interpreted by aUE. In other words, the size of the bit field for describing the RA inthe DCI is N bits and is associated with a largest supported bandwidthof a BWP, and the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry ofthe apparatus of UE for cross-BWP scheduling are to, for the next BWPhaving a smaller bandwidth, interpret the first n bits in the bit fieldfor describing the RA indicated by the DCI, where n is an integersmaller than N. Similar examples are considered for other RA types,e.g., type 1 and type 2.

In some embodiments, an NR system uses the same bit field size for RA.Regardless of whether a scheduling DCI is used or separate DCI for BWPactivation (separate BWP activation DCI) is used, the UE is supposed toknow the BWP ID that the current DCI is scheduling. Otherwise, the UEmay not interpret the bit field for RA. In other words, implicit BWPswitching via RA without explicit BWP ID signaling may not work.Specifically, the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry ofthe UE for cross-BWP scheduling are to determine a BWP ID of the nextBWP.

In another embodiment, the bit field size for RA in DCI is variable anddoes change for different BWPs. This also implies that the total DCI bitsize for a given DCI type changes for different BWPs. This approach mayincrease blind decoding overhead for the UEs.

FIG. 8 illustrates an example of an apparatus 800 in accordance withsome embodiments of this disclosure. For example, the apparatus 800 maybe included in a user equipment (UE) or a radio access network (RAN)node. In this embodiment, the apparatus 800 includes applicationcircuitry 810, baseband circuitry 820, radio frequency (RF) circuitry830, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 840, one or more antennas 850(only one is depicted) and power management circuitry (PMC) 860. In someembodiments, the apparatus 800 may include fewer components. Forexample, a RAN node may not include the application circuitry 810, andinstead may include a processor/controller to process Internet-Protocol(IP) data received from an evolved packet core (EPC) network. In otherembodiments, the apparatus 800 may include additional components, forexample, a memory/storage device, a display, a camera, a sensor or aninput/output (I/O) interface. In some embodiments, the above-mentionedcomponents may be included in more than one device. For example, inorder to implement a Cloud-RAN architecture, the above-mentionedcircuitries may be separated and included in two or more devices in theCloud-RAN architecture.

The application circuitry 810 may include one or more applicationprocessors. For example, the application circuitry 810 may include, butis not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. Theprocessors may include any combination of general-purpose processors anddedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors,etc.). The processors may be coupled to or include a memory/storagemodule, and may be configured to execute instructions stored in thememory/storage module to enable various applications or operatingsystems to run on the apparatus 800. In some embodiments, the processorsof the application circuitry 810 may process IP data packets receivedfrom an EPC network.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 820 may provide forcommunication compatible with one or more radio technologies. Forexample, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 820 may supportcommunication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network(EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wirelesslocal area network (WLAN), or a wireless personal area network (WPAN).In some embodiments where the baseband circuitry 820 is configured tosupport radio communication using more than one wireless protocol, thebaseband circuitry 820 may be referred to as a multi-mode basebandcircuitry.

The baseband circuitry 820 may include, but is not limited to, one ormore single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 820may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to processbaseband signals received from the RF circuitry 830, and to generatebaseband signals to be transmitted to the RF circuitry 830. The basebandcircuitry 820 may interface and communicate with the applicationcircuitry 810 for generation and processing of the baseband signals andfor controlling operations of the RF circuitry 830.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 820 may include a thirdgeneration (3G) baseband processor (3G BBP) 821, a fourth generation(4G)baseband processor (4G BBP) 822, a fifth generation (5G)basebandprocessor (5G BBP) 823 and other baseband processor(s) 824 for otherexisting generations, generations in development or to be developed inthe future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.).The baseband processors 821-824 of the baseband circuitry 820 areconfigured to handle various radio control functions that enablecommunication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 830.In other embodiments, the baseband circuitry 820 may further include acentral processing unit (CPU) 825 and a memory 826, and some or allfunctionality (e.g., the radio control functions) of the basebandprocessors 821-824 may be implemented as software modules that arestored in the memory 826 and executed by the CPU 825 to carry out thefunctionality. The radio control functions of the baseband processors821-824 may include, but are not limited to, signalmodulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting,etc. In some embodiments, the signal modulation/demodulation includesFast-Fourier Transform (FFT), pre-coding or constellationmapping/de-mapping. In some embodiments, the encoding/decoding includesconvolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low DensityParity Check (LDPC) encoding/decoding. Embodiments of the signalmodulation/demodulation and the encoding/decoding are not limited tothese examples and may include other suitable operations in otherembodiments. In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 820 may furtherinclude an audio digital signal processor (DSP) 827 forcompression/decompression and echo cancellation.

In some embodiments, the components of the baseband circuitry 820 may beintegrated as a single chip or a single chipset, or may be disposed on asingle circuit board. In some embodiments, some or all of theconstituent components of the baseband circuitry 820 and the applicationcircuitry 810 may be integrated as, for example, a system on chip (SoC).

The RF circuitry 830 is configured to enable communication with wirelessnetworks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solidmedium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 830 may includeswitches, filters, amplifiers, etc., to facilitate communication withthe wireless network. The RF circuitry 830 may include a receive signalpath that includes circuitry to down-convert RF signals received fromthe FEM circuitry 840 and to provide the baseband signals to thebaseband circuitry 820. The RF circuitry 830 may further include atransmit signal path that includes circuitry to up-convert the basebandsignals provided by the baseband circuitry 820 and to provide RF outputsignals to the FEM circuitry 840 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 830 mayinclude mixer circuitry 831, amplifier circuitry 832 and filtercircuitry 833. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RFcircuitry 830 may include filter circuitry 833 and mixer circuitry 831.The RF circuitry 830 may also include synthesizer circuitry 834 forsynthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 831 of thereceive signal path and/or the transmit signal path.

For the receive signal path, in some embodiments, the mixer circuitry831 may be configured to down-convert RF signals received from the FEMcircuitry 840 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizercircuitry 834. The amplifier circuitry 832 may be configured to amplifythe down-converted signals. The filter circuitry 833 may be a low-passfilter (LPF) or a band-pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwantedsignals from the down-converted signals to generate output basebandsignals. The output baseband signals may be provided to the basebandcircuitry 820 for further processing. In some embodiments, the outputbaseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although thisis not a requirement. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 831 ofthe receive signal path may include passive mixers, although the scopeof the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

As for the transmit signal path, in some embodiments, the mixercircuitry 831 may be configured to up-convert input baseband signalsbased on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry834 to generate the RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 840. Theinput baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 820,and may be filtered by the filter circuitry 833.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 831 of the receive signal pathand the mixer circuitry 831 of the transmit signal path may include twoor more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature down-conversion in thereceive signal path and for quadrature up-conversion in the transmitsignal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 831 of the receivesignal path and the mixer circuitry 831 of the transmit signal path mayinclude two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection(e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixercircuitry 831 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 831 ofthe transmit signal path may be arranged for direct down-conversion anddirect up-conversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixercircuitry 831 of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 831 ofthe transmit signal path may be configured for super-heterodyneoperation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input basebandsignals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect. In alternative embodiments,the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may bedigital baseband signals. In such alternative embodiments, the RFcircuitry 830 may further include analog-to-digital converter (ADC)circuitry and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry, and thebaseband circuitry 820 may include a digital baseband interface tocommunicate with the RF circuitry 830.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may beprovided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope ofthe embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 834 may be a fractional-Nsynthesizer or a fractional N/N+1 synthesizer, although the scope of theembodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequencysynthesizers may be suitable. For example, the synthesizer circuitry 834may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or asynthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider inother embodiments.

The synthesizer circuitry 834 may be configured to synthesize an outputfrequency for use by the mixer circuitry 831 of the RF circuitry 830based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In someembodiments, the frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlledoscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. In someembodiments, the divider control input may be provided by either thebaseband circuitry 820 or the application circuitry 810 depending on thedesired output frequency. In some embodiments, the divider control input(e.g., N) may be determined according to a look-up table based on achannel indicated by the application circuitry 810.

The synthesizer circuitry 834 of the RF circuitry 830 may include adivider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phaseaccumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulusdivider (DMD), and the phase accumulator may be a digital phaseaccumulator (DPA). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured todivide an input signal by either N or N+1 (e.g., based on a carry out)to provide a fractional division ratio. In some embodiments, the DLL mayinclude a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, acharge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delayelements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equalpackets of phase, where Nd is a number of the delay elements in thedelay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to helpensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 834 may be configured togenerate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in otherembodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrierfrequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrierfrequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and dividercircuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency withmultiple different phases with respect to each other. In someembodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In someembodiments, the RF circuitry 830 may include an IQ/polar converter.

The FEM circuitry 840 may include a receive signal path that includescircuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from the one ormore antennas 850, to amplify the received RF signals and to provideamplified versions of the received RF signals to the RF circuitry 830for further processing. The FEM circuitry 840 may further include atransmit signal path that includes circuitry configured to amplifysignals provided by the RF circuitry 830 for transmission by one or moreof the one or more antennas 850. In various embodiments, theamplification through the transmit or receive signal path may be donesolely in the RF circuitry 830, solely in the FEM circuitry 840, or inboth the RF circuitry 830 and the FEM circuitry 840.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 840 may include a TX/RX switch toswitch between transmit mode operation and receive mode operation. Thereceive signal path of the FEM circuitry 840 may include a low-noiseamplifier (LNA) to amplify the received RF signals and to provide theamplified versions of the received RF signals as an output (e.g., to theRF circuitry 830). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 840 mayinclude a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g.,provided by the RF circuitry 830), and one or more filters to generateRF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the oneor more antennas 850).

In some embodiments, the PMC 860 is configured to manage power providedto the baseband circuitry 820. In particular, the PMC 860 may controlpower-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DCconversion. The PMC 860 may often be included in the apparatus 800 whenthe apparatus 800 is capable of being powered by a battery. For example,when the apparatus 800 is included in a UE, it generally includes thePMC 860. The PMC 860 may increase the power conversion efficiency whileproviding desirable implementation size and heat dissipationcharacteristics.

While FIG. 8 shows the PMC 860 being coupled only with the basebandcircuitry 820, in other embodiments, the PMC 860 may be additionally oralternatively coupled with, and perform similar power managementoperations for, other components such as, but not limited to, theapplication circuitry 810, the RF circuitry 830 or the FEM 840.

In some embodiments, the PMC 860 may control, or otherwise be part of,various power saving mechanisms of the apparatus 800. For example, ifthe apparatus 800 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is stillconnected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, thenit may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after aperiod of inactivity. During this state, the apparatus 800 may powerdown for brief intervals of time and thus save power.

If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time,then the apparatus 800 may enter an RRC_Idle state, where it disconnectsfrom network and does not perform operations such as channel qualityfeedback, handover, etc. The apparatus 800 goes into a very low powerstate and it performs paging where it periodically wakes up to listen tothe network and then powers down again. The apparatus 800 may notreceive data in this state. In order to receive data, the apparatus 800transitions back to the RRC_Connected state.

An additional power saving mode may allow a device or apparatus to beunavailable to the network for periods longer than a paging interval(ranging from seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device orapparatus is totally unreachable to the network and may power downcompletely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and itis assumed the delay is acceptable.

Processors of the application circuitry 810 and processors of thebaseband circuitry 820 may be used to execute elements of one or moreinstances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the basebandcircuitry 820, alone or in combination, may be used to execute Layer 3,Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the applicationcircuitry 810 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from theselayers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., transmissioncommunication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers).As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radio resource control(RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein,Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio linkcontrol (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP)layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described infurther detail below.

FIG. 9 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry inaccordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the basebandcircuitry 820 of FIG. 8 includes various processors (i.e., the basebandprocessors 821-824 and the CPU 825), and the memory 826 utilized by theprocessors. Each of the processors 821-825 may include an internalmemory interface (MEM I/F) 8201-8205 communicatively coupled to thememory 826 so as to send/receive data to/from the memory 826.

The baseband circuitry 820 may further include one or more interfaces tocommunicatively couple to other circuitries/devices. The one or moreinterfaces include, for example, a memory interface (MEM I/F) 8206(e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to thebaseband circuitry 820), an application circuitry interface (APP I/F)8207 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from the applicationcircuitry 810 of FIG. 8), an RF circuitry interface (RF I/F) 8208 (e.g.,an interface to send/receive data to/from the RF circuitry 830 of FIG.8), a wireless hardware connectivity interface (W-HW I/F) 8209 (e.g., aninterface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC)components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi®components, and/or other communication components), and a powermanagement interface (PM I/F) 8210 (e.g., an interface to send/receivepower or control signals to/from the PMC 860 of FIG. 8).

FIG. 10 illustrates an architecture of a system 1000 of a network inaccordance with some embodiments of this disclosure. The system 1000 isshown to include a user equipment (UE) 1001 and a UE 1002. The UEs 1001and 1002 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreenmobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks),but may also include any mobile or non-mobile computing device, such asPersonal Data Assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktopcomputers, wireless handsets, or any computing device including awireless communications interface.

In some embodiments, at least one of the UEs 1001 and 1002 may be anInternet-of-Things (IoT) UE, which can include a network access layerdesigned for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UEconnections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such asmachine-to-machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) forexchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobilenetwork (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device(D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTCexchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoTnetwork describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquelyidentifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internetinfrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UE may executebackground applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates,etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

The UEs 1001 and 1002 may be configured to connect, e.g.,communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN) 1010. The RAN1010 may be, for example, an Evolved Universal Mobile TelecommunicationsSystem (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN(NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UEs 1001 and 1002 utilizeconnections 1003 and 1004, respectively. Each of the connections 1003and 1004 includes a physical communications interface or layer(discussed in further detail below). In this embodiment, the connections1003 and 1004 are illustrated as an air interface to enablecommunicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellularcommunications protocols, such as a Global System for MobileCommunications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA)network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular(POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS)protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth generation(5G)protocol, a New Radio (NR) protocol, and the like.

In this embodiment, the UEs 1001 and 1002 may further directly exchangecommunication data via a ProSe interface 1005. The ProSe interface 1005may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface including oneor more logical channels. The one or more logical channels include, butare not limited to, a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), aPhysical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink DiscoveryChannel (PSDCH) and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

The UE 1002 is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP)1006 via connection 1007. The connection 1007 may include a localwireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 1006 may include a wireless fidelity(WiFi®) router. In this example, the AP 1006 is shown to be connected tothe Internet without connecting to a core network 1020 of the wirelesssystem 1000 (described in further detail below).

The RAN 1010 can include one or more access nodes that enable theconnections 1003 and 1004. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred toas base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next GenerationNodeBs (gNB), RAN nodes, and so forth, and can include ground stations(e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providingcoverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). In some embodiments,the RAN 1010 may include one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells,e.g., macro RAN node 1011, and one or more RAN nodes for providingfemtocells or picocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas,smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells),e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 1012.

Any one of the RAN nodes 1011 and 1012 can terminate the air interfaceprotocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 1001 and1002. In some embodiments, any one of the RAN nodes 1011 and 1012 canfulfill various logical functions for the RAN 1010 including, but notlimited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radiobearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource managementand data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

According to some embodiments, the UEs 1001 and 1002 can be configuredto communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM)communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 1011and 1012 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance withvarious communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, anOrthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communicationtechnique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a Single CarrierFrequency Division Multiple Access (SC-FDMA) communication technique(e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications). It is notedthat the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. TheOFDM signals may include a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlinktransmissions from any one of the RAN nodes 1011 and 1012 to the UEs1001 and 1002, while uplink transmissions can utilize similartechniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resourcegrid or time-frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource inthe downlink in each slot. Such a time-frequency plane representation isa common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radioresource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource gridcorrespond to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. Theduration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slotin a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid isdenoted as a resource element. Each resource grid includes a number ofresource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channelsto resource elements. Each resource block includes a collection ofresource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent thesmallest quantity of resources that can currently be allocated. Thereare several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed usingsuch resource blocks.

The PDSCH may carry user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 1001and 1002. The PDCCH may carry information about the transport format andresource allocations related to the PDSCH, among other things. The PDCCHmay also inform the UEs 1001 and 1002 about the transport format,resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request)information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlinkscheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to a UEwithin a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 1011 and 1012based on channel quality information fed back from any one of the UEs1001 and 1002. The downlink resource assignment information may be senton the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 1001 and 1002.

The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the controlinformation. Before being mapped to resource elements, PDCCHcomplex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, whichmay then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching.Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, whereeach CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase ShiftKeying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can betransmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of thedownlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There canbe four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with differentnumbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=1, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for controlchannel information that are an extension of the above-describedconcepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physicaldownlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for controlinformation transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one ormore enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, eachECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elementsknown as enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). One of the ECCEs mayhave other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN 1010 is shown to be communicatively coupled to the core network(CN) 1020 via an S1 interface 1013. In some embodiments, the CN 1020 maybe an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC)network, or some other type of CN. In this embodiment, the S1 interface1013 is split into two parts, including an S1-U interface 1014 and anS1-mobility management entity (MME) interface 1015. The S1-U interface1014 carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 1011 and 1012 and aserving gateway (S-GW) 1022. The S1-MME interface 1015 is a signalinginterface between the RAN nodes 1011 and 1012 and MMEs 1021.

In this embodiment, the CN 1020 includes the MMEs 1021, the S-GW 1022, aPacket Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 1023, and a home subscriberserver (HSS) 1024. The MMEs 1021 may be similar in function to thecontrol plane of legacy Serving GPRS (General Packet Radio Service)Support Nodes (SGSNs). The MMEs 1021 may manage mobility aspects inaccess such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. TheHSS 1024 may include a database for network users, includingsubscription-related information to support the network entities'handling of communication sessions. The CN 1020 may include one orseveral HSSs 1024, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on thecapacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. Forexample, the HSS 1024 can provide support for routing/roaming,authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, locationdependencies, etc.

The S-GW 1022 terminates the S1 interface 1013 towards the RAN 1010, androutes data packets between the RAN 1010 and the CN 1020. In addition,the S-GW 1022 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN nodehandovers, and also may provide an anchor for inter-3GPP mobility. Otherresponsibilities of the S-GW 1022 may include lawful intercept,charging, and some policy enforcement.

The P-GW 1023 terminates an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW 1023routes data packets between the CN 1020 (e.g., the EPC network) andexternal networks such as a network including an application server 1030(alternatively referred to as application function (AF)) via an InternetProtocol (IP) interface 1025. Generally, the application server 1030 maybe an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources withthe core network 1020 (e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PSdata services, etc.). In this embodiment, the P-GW 1023 is shown to becommunicatively coupled to the application server 1030 via the IPinterface 1025. The application server 1030 can also be configured tosupport one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over-InternetProtocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions,social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 1001 and 1002 via the CN1020.

In some embodiments, the P-GW 1023 may further be a node for policyenforcement and charging data collection. The CN 1020 may furtherinclude a policy and charging control element (e.g., Policy and ChargingEnforcement Function (PCRF) 1026). In a non-roaming scenario, there maybe a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN)associated with a UE's Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network(IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic,there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE's IP-CAN session: a HomePCRF (H-PCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within aVisited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF 1026 may becommunicatively coupled to the application server 1030 via the P-GW1023. The application server 1030 may signal the PCRF 1026 to indicate anew service flow and select appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) andcharging parameters. The PCRF 1026 may provision this rule into a Policyand Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with appropriatetraffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier (QCI), whichcommences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server1030.

FIG. 11 illustrates an example of a control plane protocol stackaccording to some embodiments of this disclosure. In the example of FIG.11, a control plane 1100 is shown as a communications protocol stackbetween the UE 1001 (or alternatively, the UE 1002), the RAN node 1011(or alternatively, the RAN node 1012), and the MME 1021.

The PHY layer 1101 may transmit or receive information used by the MAClayer 1102 over one or more air interfaces. The PHY layer 1101 mayfurther perform link adaptation or adaptive modulation and coding (AMC),power control, cell search (e.g., for initial synchronization andhandover purposes), and other measurements used by higher layers, suchas the RRC layer 1105. The PHY layer 1101 may still further performerror detection on the transport channels, forward error correction(FEC) coding/decoding of the transport channels, modulation/demodulationof physical channels, interleaving, rate matching, mapping onto physicalchannels, and Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) antenna processing.

The MAC layer 1102 may perform mapping between logical channels andtransport channels, multiplexing of MAC service data units (SDUs) fromone or more logical channels onto transport blocks (TB) to be deliveredto the PHY layer 1101 via transport channels, de-multiplexing MAC SDUsto one or more logical channels from transport blocks (TB) deliveredfrom the PHY layer 1101 via transport channels, multiplexing MAC SDUsonto TBs, scheduling information reporting, error correction throughhybrid automatic repeat request (HARD), and logical channelprioritization.

The RLC layer 1103 may operate in a plurality of modes of operation,including Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM) andAcknowledged Mode (AM). The RLC layer 1103 may execute transfer of upperlayer protocol data units (PDUs), error correction through automaticrepeat request (ARQ) for AM data transfers, and concatenation,segmentation and reassembly of RLC SDUs for UM and AM data transfers.The RLC layer 1103 may also execute re-segmentation of RLC data PDUs forAM data transfers, reorder RLC data PDUs for UM and AM data transfers,detect duplicate data for UM and AM data transfers, discard RLC SDUs forUM and AM data transfers, detect protocol errors for AM data transfers,and perform RLC re-establishment.

The PDCP layer 1104 may execute header compression and decompression ofIP data, maintain PDCP Sequence Numbers (SNs), perform in-sequencedelivery of upper layer PDUs at re-establishment of lower layers,eliminate duplicates of lower layer SDUs at re-establishment of lowerlayers for radio bearers mapped on RLC AM, cipher and decipher controlplane data, perform integrity protection and integrity verification ofcontrol plane data, control timer-based discard of data, and performsecurity operations (e.g., ciphering, deciphering, integrity protection,integrity verification, etc.).

The main services and functions of the RRC layer 1105 may includebroadcast of system information (e.g., included in Master InformationBlocks (MIBs) or System Information Blocks (SIBs) related to thenon-access stratum (NAS)), broadcast of system information related tothe access stratum (AS), paging, establishment, maintenance and releaseof an RRC connection between the UE 1001 or 1002 and the E-UTRAN (e.g.,RRC connection paging, RRC connection establishment, RRC connectionmodification, and RRC connection release), establishment, configuration,maintenance and release of point-to-point radio bearers, securityfunctions including key management, inter radio access technology (RAT)mobility, and measurement configuration for UE measurement reporting.Said MIBs and SIBs may include one or more information elements (IEs),which may each comprise individual data fields or data structures.

The UE 1001 and the RAN node 1011 of FIG. 10 may utilize a Uu interface(e.g., an LTE-Uu interface) to exchange control plane data via aprotocol stack including the PHY layer 1101, the MAC layer 1102, the RLClayer 1103, the PDCP layer 1104 and the RRC layer 1105.

The non-access stratum (NAS) protocols 1106 form the highest stratum ofthe control plane between the UE 1001 or 1002 and the MME 1021. The NASprotocols 1106 support the mobility of the UE 1001 or 1002 and thesession management procedures to establish and maintain IP connectivitybetween the UE 1001 or 1002 and the P-GW 1023 (see FIG. 10).

The S1 Application Protocol (S1-AP) layer 1115 may support the functionsof the S1 interface, and include Elementary Procedures (EPs). An EP is aunit of interaction between the RAN node 1011 or 1012 and the CN 1020(see FIG. 10). The S1-AP layer 1115 provides services that may includetwo groups, i.e., UE-associated services and non UE-associated services.These services perform functions including, but not limited to, E-UTRANRadio Access Bearer (E-RAB) management, UE capability indication,mobility, NAS signaling transport, RAN Information Management (RIM), andconfiguration transfer.

A Stream Control Transmission Protocol (SCTP) layer 1114 may ensurereliable delivery of signaling messages between the RAN node 1011 or1012 and the MME 1021 based, in part, on the IP protocol supported bythe IP layer 1113. An L2 layer 1112 and an L1 layer 1111 may refer tocommunication links (e.g., wired or wireless) used by the RAN node 1011or 1012 and the MME 1021 to exchange information.

The RAN node 1011 and the MME 1021 may utilize an S1-MME interface toexchange control plane data via a protocol stack including the L1 layer1111, the L2 layer 1112, the IP layer 1113, the SCTP layer 1114, and theS1-AP layer 1115.

FIG. 12 illustrates an example of a user plane protocol stack accordingto some embodiments of this disclosure. In this example, a user plane1200 is shown as a communications protocol stack between the UE 1001 (oralternatively, the UE 1002), the RAN node 1011 (or alternatively, theRAN node 1012), the S-GW 1022, and the P-GW 1023. The user plane 1200may utilize at least some of the same protocol layers as the controlplane 1100 of FIG. 11. For example, the UE 1001 or 1002 and the RAN node1011 or 1012 may utilize a Uu interface (e.g., an LTE-Uu interface) toexchange user plane data via a protocol stack also including a PHY layer1101, a MAC layer 1102, an RLC layer 1103 and a PDCP layer 1104 (seeFIG. 11).

A General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Tunneling Protocol for the userplane (GTP-U) layer 1204 may be used for carrying user data within theGPRS core network and between the radio access network and the corenetwork. The user data transported can be packets in any of IPv4, IPv6,or PPP formats. A UDP and IP security (UDP/IP) layer 1203 may providechecksums for data integrity, port numbers for addressing differentfunctions at the source and destination, and encryption andauthentication on the selected data flows. The RAN node 1011 or 1012 andthe S-GW 1022 may utilize an S1-U interface to exchange user plane datavia a protocol stack including the L1 layer 1111, the L2 layer 1112, theUDP/IP layer 1203, and the GTP-U layer 1204. The S-GW 1022 and the P-GW1023 may utilize an S5/S8a interface to exchange user plane data via aprotocol stack including the L1 layer 1111, the L2 layer 1112, theUDP/IP layer 1203, and the GTP-U layer 1204. The protocol stack for theP-GW 1023 may further include the IP layer 1213. As discussed above withrespect to FIG. 11, NAS protocols support the mobility of the UE 1001 or1002 and the session management procedures to establish and maintain IPconnectivity between the UE 1001 or 1002 and the P-GW 1023.

FIG. 13 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to someexample embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readableor computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readablestorage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 13 shows a diagrammaticrepresentation of hardware resources 1300 including one or moreprocessors (or processor cores) 1310, one or more memory/storage devices1320, and one or more communication resources 1330, each of which may becommunicatively coupled via a bus 1340. For embodiments where nodevirtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 1302 may beexecuted to provide an execution environment for one or more networkslices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 1300.

The processors 1310 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reducedinstruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction setcomputing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digitalsignal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an applicationspecific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit(RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) mayinclude, for example, a processor 1312 and a processor 1314.

The memory/storage devices 1320 may include main memory, disk storage,or any suitable combination thereof. The memory/storage devices 1320 mayinclude, but are not limited to any type of volatile or non-volatilememory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-accessmemory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM),electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flashmemory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 1330 may include interconnection or networkinterface components or other suitable devices to communicate with oneor more peripheral devices 1304 or one or more databases 1306 via anetwork 1308. For example, the communication resources 1330 may includewired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a UniversalSerial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components,Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components,and other communication components.

Instructions 1350 may comprise software, a program, an application, anapplet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of theprocessors 1310 to perform any one or more of the methodologiesdiscussed herein. The instructions 1350 may reside, completely orpartially, within at least one of the processors 1310 (e.g., within theprocessor's cache memory), the memory/storage devices 1320, or anysuitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of theinstructions 1350 may be transferred to the hardware resources 1300 fromany combination of the peripheral devices 1304 or the databases 1306.Accordingly, the memory of processors 1310, the memory/storage devices1320, the peripheral devices 1304, and the databases 1306 are examplesof computer-readable and machine-readable media.

EXAMPLES

The following examples pertain to specific technology embodiments andpoint out specific features, elements, or actions that can be used orotherwise combined in achieving such embodiments.

Example 1 is an apparatus of user equipment (UE) for bandwidth part(BWP) activation and deactivation operation. The apparatus comprisesbaseband circuitry that includes a radio frequency (RF) interface, andone or more processors to: receive radio resource control (RRC) data viathe RF interface; to configure a timer for a BWP according to the RRCdata; and to trigger the timer for the BWP in response to detection ofan event associated with an access node after the BWP has beenactivated.

In Example 2, the subject matter of Example 1 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to configure an expiration time of the timerfor the BWP as a BWP configuration parameter of the BWP.

In Example 3, the subject matter of Example 1 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to, in response to receipt of a timer-startcommand from the RF interface, generate a confirmation of thetimer-start command, send the confirmation to the RF interface, andtrigger the timer.

In Example 4, the subject matter of Example 3 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to deactivate the BWP when it is determinedthat there is no data transmission in the BWP before the timer expires.

In Example 5, the subject matter of Example 1 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to trigger the timer for the BWP in responseto detection of an event that there is data scheduled in the BWP.

In Example 6, the subject matter of Example 5 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to restart the timer when it is determinedthat there is data transmission in the BWP before the timer expires.

In Example 7, the subject matter of Example 5 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to deactivate the BWP when it is determinedthat there is no data transmission in the BWP before the timer expires.

In Example 8, the subject matter of Example 1 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to configure a timer for a control resourceset (CORESET) to serve as the timer for the BWP, the CORESET included inthe BWP.

In Example 9, the subject matter of Example 8 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to, in response to receipt of a timer-startcommand from the RF interface, generate a confirmation of thetimer-start command, send the confirmation to the RF interface, andtrigger the timer for the CORESET after the CORESET has been activated.

In Example 10, the subject matter of Example 9 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to deactivate the CORESET when it isdetermined that there is no data transmission in the CORESET before thetimer expires.

In Example 11, the subject matter of Example 8 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to trigger the timer for the CORESET inresponse to detection of an event that there is data transmission in theCORESET after the CORESET has been activated.

In Example 12, the subject matter of Example 11 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to restart the timer when it is determinedthat there is data transmission in the CORESET before the timer expires.

In Example 13, the subject matter of Example 11 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to deactivate the CORESET when it isdetermined that there is no data transmission in the CORESET before thetimer expires.

In Example 14, the subject matter of Example 8 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to deactivate the BWP when it is determinedthat all CORESETs included in the BWP are deactivated.

In Example 15, the subject matter of Example 1 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to switch the deactivated BWP to a defaultBWP, the default BWP having a smaller bandwidth than the deactivatedBWP.

In Example 16, the subject matter of Example 1 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to configure a timer for the default BWP withan expiration time equal to a discontinuous reception (DRX) time of theapparatus which is larger than any other expiration time.

Example 17 is an apparatus of a radio access network (RAN) nodecomprising baseband circuitry that includes: one or more processors togenerate, for secondary cell (SCell) configuration, data that containinformation regarding a carrier signal to be specifically allocated to auser equipment (UE) for informing the UE about a center frequency and abandwidth of the carrier signal; and an RF interface to receive the datafrom the one or more processors.

In Example 18, the subject matter of Example 17 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to generate the data to contain theinformation including a center frequency from a perspective of the RANnode, an offset from the center frequency from the perspective of theRAN node to a center frequency from a perspective of the UE and abandwidth of the carrier signal from the perspective of the UE.

In Example 19, the subject matter of Example 17 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to generate the data to contain theinformation including a center frequency from a perspective of the RANnode, and two offsets from the center frequency to respective ends ofthe carrier signal from a perspective of the UE.

In Example 20, the subject matter of Example 17 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to generate the data to contain theinformation including a center frequency from a perspective of the UE,and a bandwidth of the carrier signal from the perspective of the UE.

Example 21 is an apparatus of user equipment (UE) for common physicalresource block (PRB) indexing. The apparatus comprises basebandcircuitry including a radio frequency (RF) interface, and one or moreprocessors to: for a SCell carrier without a synchronization signalblock (SSB), receive from the RF interface data that indicate an offsetbetween a reference point and a lowest subcarrier of a reference PRB,which is a lowest PRB of a carrier from a perspective of an access nodethat allocates the SCell carrier to the apparatus; and configure datatransmission with the access node according to the offset indicated bythe data.

In Example 22, the subject matter of Example 21 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the reference point is alowest PRB of the SCell carrier from a perspective of the apparatus.

In Example 23, the subject matter of Example 21 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the reference point is a PRBcontaining the center frequency of the carrier from the perspective ofthe access node.

In Example 24, the subject matter of Example 21 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the reference point is a PRBcontaining the center frequency of the SCell carrier from a perspectiveof the apparatus.

In Example 25, the subject matter of Example 21 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the reference point is a PRBcontaining the DC subcarrier.

In Example 26, the subject matter of Example 21 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the reference point is aposition of a virtual SSB which is not physically presented in the SCellcarrier.

In Example 27, the subject matter of Example 26 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the virtual SSB is a lowestPRB within the SCell carrier from a perspective of the apparatus.

Example 28 is an apparatus of user equipment (UE) comprising basebandcircuitry including a radio frequency (RF) interface and one or moreprocessors to, when there is an association between a downlink (DL)bandwidth part (BWP) and an uplink (UL) BWP: receive, from the RFinterface, data containing downlink control information (DCI) thatindicates a BWP configuration identifier (ID); and switch both the DLBWP and the UL BWP to a BWP corresponding to the BWP configuration ID.

In Example 29, the subject matter of Example 28 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that a format of the DCI is one ofDL grant and UL grant.

In Example 30, the subject matter of Example 28 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to, when there is no association between theDL BWP and the UL BWP: receive, from the RF interface, data containingthe DCI for DL BWP switching that indicates a DL BWP configuration ID;and switch the DL BWP to another DL BWP corresponding to the DL BWPconfiguration ID indicated by the DCI.

In Example 31, the subject matter of Example 30 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the DCI for DL BWP switchingis a DL grant scheduling DCI.

In Example 32, the subject matter of Example 28 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to, when there is no association between theDL BWP and the UL BWP: receive, from the RF interface, data containingthe DCI for UL BWP switching that indicates a UL BWP configuration ID;and switch the UL BWP to another UL BWP corresponding to the UL BWPconfiguration ID indicated by the DCI.

In Example 33, the subject matter of Example 32 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the DCI for UL BWP switchingis a UL grant scheduling DCI.

Example 34 is an apparatus of user equipment (UE) to support bandwidthpart (BWP) switching without scheduling. The apparatus comprisingbaseband circuitry that includes: a radio frequency (RF) interface, andone or more processors to: receive, from the RF interface, datacontaining a bit indicator that indicates BWP switching only; and switcha current BWP to another BWP.

In Example 35, the subject matter of Example 34 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the data received by the oneor more processors of the baseband circuitry is downlink controlinformation (DCI), and the bit indicator is an expression of a bit fieldin the DCI serving the purpose of BWP switching only.

In Example 36, the subject matter of Example 35 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the bit field in the DCIincludes one of resource block (RB) assignment bits, modulation andcoding scheme (MCS) bits, a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARM)process number, and any combination thereof.

Example 37 is an apparatus of user equipment (UE) comprising basebandcircuitry including a radio frequency (RF) interface, and one or moreprocessors to: receive, from the RF interface, radio resource control(RRC) configuration data that indicate a set of bandwidth parts (BWPs);and configure, according to the RRC configuration data, the set of BWPs,in which a BWP is to be activated for data transmission with an accessnode.

In Example 38, the subject matter of Example 37 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that a total number of BWPs in theset of BWPs indicated by the RRC configuration data is fixed to aninteger number K, the BWPs have respective BWP identifiers (IDs) rangingfrom 1 to K, and a total of log 2 K bits are used to express the BWPIDs.

In Example 39, the subject matter of Example 37 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the RRC configuration datafurther indicate a range of configurable BWP IDs, the range being aninteger number K′, the number of BWPs in the set of BWPs configured bythe one or more processors does not exceed the integer number K′, and atotal of log 2 K′ bits are used to express the BWP IDs.

Example 40 is an apparatus of user equipment (UE) comprising a basebandcircuitry including a radio frequency (RF) interface, and one or moreprocessors to: receive, from the RF interface, downlink controlinformation (DCI) including a bandwidth part (BWP) activation commandand a BWP identifier (ID); and activate a BWP corresponding to the BWPID.

In Example 41, the subject matter of Example 40 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the DCI is a scheduling DCIwhich describes resource allocation (RA), the description of the RAincluding the BWP ID.

In Example 42, the subject matter of Example 41 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the scheduling DCI includes aplurality of BWP IDs for activation of a plurality of BWPs.

In Example 43, the subject matter of Example 42 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the BWP IDs of the schedulingDCI are indicated by a bitmap.

In Example 44, the subject matter of Example 41 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the scheduling DCI includesboth an uplink (UL) BWP ID and a downlink (DL) BWP ID.

In Example 45, the subject matter of Example 41 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the scheduling DCI includes aDL BWP ID.

In Example 46, the subject matter of Example 41 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the scheduling DCI includes aUL BWP ID.

In Example 47, the subject matter of Example 40 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the DCI is a separate BWPactivation DCI which is used for a dedicated purpose of BWP activationand which includes the BWP ID corresponding to the BWP expected to beactivated.

In Example 48, the subject matter of Example 47 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the separate BWP activationDCI includes a plurality of BWP IDs for activation of a plurality ofBWPs.

In Example 49, the subject matter of Example 48 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the BWP IDs of the separateBWP activation DCI are indicated by a bitmap.

In Example 50, the subject matter of Example 48 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to receive, from the RF interface, ascheduling DCI which indicates one of the BWP IDs corresponding to oneof the BWPs to be scheduled for data transmission.

In Example 51, the subject matter of Example 47 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the separate BWP activationDCI includes only one BWP ID, and the one or more processors of thebaseband circuitry are to receive, from the RF interface, a schedulingDCI which does not indicate the BWP ID corresponding to the BWP to bescheduled for data transmission.

In Example 52, the subject matter of Example 47 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the separate BWP activationDCI includes a timer value for timer-based BWP switching.

In Example 53, the subject matter of Example 47 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the separate BWP activationDCI includes time provisioned for RF switching.

In Example 54, the subject matter of Example 47 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the separate BWP activationDCI is used for both UL BWP activation and DL BWP activation.

In Example 55, the subject matter of Example 47 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the separate BWP activationDCI is used for DL BWP activation.

In Example 56, the subject matter of Example 47 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the separate BWP activationDCI is used for UL BWP activation.

In Example 57, the subject matter of Example 40 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that activation of the BWP iswithin a configured carrier and does not span over different carriers.

Example 58 is an apparatus of user equipment (UE) forcross-bandwidth-part (cross-BWP) scheduling. The apparatus comprisesbaseband circuitry that includes a radio frequency (RF) interface, andone or more processors to: receive, from the RF interface, downlinkcontrol information (DCI) that indicates resource allocation (RA) in anext BWP, the apparatus expected to switch from a current BWP to thenext BWP. A size of a bit field for describing the RA in the DCI isfixed and does not change for different BWPs, a total bit size for theDCI is fixed and does not change for different BWPs, and used bits amongthe bit field for describing the RA are dependent on the current BWP andthe next BWP.

In Example 59, the subject matter of Example 58 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the size of the bit field fordescribing the RA in the DCI is N bits and is associated with a largestsupported bandwidth of a BWP, and the one or more processors of thebaseband circuitry are to, for the next BWP having a smaller bandwidth,interpret the first n bits in the bit field for describing the RAindicated by the DCI, where n is an integer smaller than N.

In Example 60, the subject matter of Example 58 or any of the Examplesdescribed herein may further include that the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to determine a BWP identifier (ID) of thenext BWP.

In the foregoing specification, a detailed description has been givenwith reference to specific embodiments. It can, however, be evident thatvarious modifications and changes may be made thereto without departingfrom the broader spirit and scope of the present techniques as set forthin the appended claims. The specification and drawings are, accordingly,to be regarded in an illustrative sense rather than a restrictive sense.Furthermore, the foregoing use of the term “embodiment” and otherlanguage does not necessarily refer to the same embodiment or the sameexample, but may refer to different and distinct embodiments, as well aspotentially the same embodiment.

What is claimed is:
 1. An apparatus of user equipment (UE) for bandwidthpart (BWP) activation and deactivation operation, the apparatuscomprising baseband circuitry that includes: a radio frequency (RF)interface; and one or more processors to: receive radio resource control(RRC) data via the RF interface; configure a timer for a BWP accordingto the RRC data; and trigger the timer for the BWP in response todetection of an event associated with an access node after the BWP hasbeen activated.
 2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the oneor more processors of the baseband circuitry are to configure anexpiration time of the timer for the BWP as a BWP configurationparameter of the BWP.
 3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, whereinthe one or more processors of the baseband circuitry are to: in responseto receipt of a timer-start command from the RF interface, generate aconfirmation of the timer-start command, send the confirmation to the RFinterface, and trigger the timer.
 4. The apparatus as claimed in claim3, wherein the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry are todeactivate the BWP when it is determined that there is no datatransmission in the BWP before the timer expires.
 5. The apparatus asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry are to trigger the timer for the BWP in response to detectionof an event that there is data scheduled in the BWP.
 6. The apparatus asclaimed in claim 5, wherein the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry are to restart the timer when it is determined that there isdata transmission in the BWP before the timer expires.
 7. The apparatusas claimed in claim 5, wherein the one or more processors of thebaseband circuitry are to deactivate the BWP when it is determined thatthere is no data transmission in the BWP before the timer expires. 8.The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more processorsof the baseband circuitry are to configure a timer for a controlresource set (CORESET) to serve as the timer for the BWP, the CORESETincluded in the BWP.
 9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 8, wherein theone or more processors of the baseband circuitry are to: in response toreceipt of a timer-start command from the RF interface, generate aconfirmation of the timer-start command, send the confirmation to the RFinterface, and trigger the timer for the CORESET after the CORESET hasbeen activated.
 10. The apparatus as claimed in claim 9, wherein the oneor more processors of the baseband circuitry are to deactivate theCORESET when it is determined that there is no data transmission in theCORESET before the timer expires.
 11. The apparatus as claimed in claim8, wherein the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry are totrigger the timer for the CORESET in response to detection of an eventthat there is data transmission in the CORESET after the CORESET hasbeen activated.
 12. The apparatus as claimed in claim 11, wherein theone or more processors of the baseband circuitry are to restart thetimer when it is determined that there is data transmission in theCORESET before the timer expires.
 13. The apparatus as claimed in claim11, wherein the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry are todeactivate the CORESET when it is determined that there is no datatransmission in the CORESET before the timer expires.
 14. The apparatusas claimed in claim 8, wherein the one or more processors of thebaseband circuitry are to deactivate the BWP when it is determined thatall CORESETs included in the BWP are deactivated.
 15. The apparatus asclaimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors of the basebandcircuitry are to switch the deactivated BWP to a default BWP, thedefault BWP having a smaller bandwidth than the deactivated BWP.
 16. Theapparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the one or more processors ofthe baseband circuitry are to configure a timer for the default BWP withan expiration time equal to a discontinuous reception (DRX) time of theapparatus which is larger than any other expiration time.
 17. Anapparatus of a radio access network (RAN) node comprising basebandcircuitry that includes: one or more processors to generate, forsecondary cell (SCell) configuration, data that contain informationregarding a carrier signal to be specifically allocated to a userequipment (UE) for informing the UE about a center frequency and abandwidth of the carrier signal; and an RF interface to receive the datafrom the one or more processors.
 18. The apparatus as claimed in claim17, wherein the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry are togenerate the data to contain the information including: a centerfrequency from a perspective of the RAN node; an offset from the centerfrequency from the perspective of the RAN node to a center frequencyfrom a perspective of the UE; and a bandwidth of the carrier signal fromthe perspective of the UE.
 19. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17,wherein the one or more processors of the baseband circuitry are togenerate the data to contain the information including: a centerfrequency from a perspective of the RAN node; and two offsets from thecenter frequency to respective ends of the carrier signal from aperspective of the UE.
 20. The apparatus as claimed in claim 17, whereinthe one or more processors of the baseband circuitry are to generate thedata to contain the information including: a center frequency from aperspective of the UE; and a bandwidth of the carrier signal from theperspective of the UE.
 21. An apparatus of user equipment (UE) forcommon physical resource block (PRB) indexing, the apparatus comprisingbaseband circuitry including: a radio frequency (RF) interface; and oneor more processors to: for a SCell carrier without a synchronizationsignal block (SSB), receive from the RF interface data that indicate anoffset between a reference point and a lowest subcarrier of a referencePRB, which is a lowest PRB of a carrier from a perspective of an accessnode that allocates the SCell carrier to the apparatus; and configuredata transmission with the access node according to the offset indicatedby the data.
 22. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein thereference point is a lowest PRB of the SCell carrier from a perspectiveof the apparatus.
 23. The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein thereference point is a PRB containing the center frequency of the carrierfrom the perspective of the access node.
 24. The apparatus as claimed inclaim 21, wherein the reference point is a PRB containing the centerfrequency of the SCell carrier from a perspective of the apparatus. 25.The apparatus as claimed in claim 21, wherein the reference point is aPRB containing the DC subcarrier.